While Noah’s Ark is a popular Bible story for children, there is nothing particularly childish about it. It often occurs to me, not completely facetiously, that Noah’s Ark isn’t a very appropriate story for kids.
The Noah story is actually a very adult cautionary tale about the human penchant for destruction and the spiritual consequences of violence. These themes are presented vividly at the outset: in Genesis 6:11 God sees that the “earth had become corrupt” (“vatishchat ha’aretz”). It is notable that the Hebrew word for corruption (“shachat”) also means “destroy” or “slaughter.” It no coincidence that the same word is used for God’s destruction of the world (6:17) suggesting that humanity’s destructive tendencies ultimately became a self-fulfilling prophecy.
Following the Flood, God indicates an acceptance that violence is an indelible part of human nature (8:21) and creates laws designed to help mitigate its humanity’s bloodlust (see 9:4 and 9:6). In this regard, the Noah story teaches hard lessons about the darker aspects of the human species as well as the ongoing need to keep them at bay.
When I teach this story to children, I usually find that they are less disturbed by humanity’s behavior than God’s. Sure, people behave badly – but why should God? Why does God respond to destruction and violence with more destruction and violence?
Short of apologetics, there are no good answers to questions like these. (”I don’t know, Annie, why do you think God behaves this way?”) But, yes, it is difficult to ignore the fact that that God exhibits a markedly human frustration and impatience in the Noah narrative (see 6:6). In some ways, God’s “bloodthirsty” behavior seems to be a powerful mirror reflection of humanity’s. Even the rainbow sign itself might be viewed as a reminder for God to mitigate God’s more destructive impulses.
Though different readers will draw different theological conclusions from the Noah story, the essential imperative is clear for us all: we must learn to face and transcend our penchant for violence and destruction. The ultimate stakes – the very future of life on our planet – remain the same for us as they did for Noah’s generation.
Brant:
Yasher Koach! I am glad to see that you have finally yielded to popular demand and brought back your cyber-Torah commentary.
Back in 5762 (2001), I had the privilege of delivering the Dvar Torah at the JRF Midwest Shabbaton held at Camp Chi in Wisconsin. The portion that Shabbat was also Noach and I recall folks were still reeling from the shock, horror and destruction of 9/11.
I closed my Dvar with the following words penned by Rabbi Neal Joseph Loevinger, which I think dovetail nicely with your drash:
“Just as humans brought about disaster with their violence and their conflict before the Flood, so can we bring about disaster now, with destruction of our own making. God may have put the rainbow in the clouds, but its up to us to unify the colors and stripes here on earth. This has been our challenge since ancient days, to make peace on earth as the peace of the heavens.”
Shabbat Shalom,
Brad Rosen
Thank you, that was just what I needed to hear this week. Though the story has global implications, it hits close to home for me. When you say that children wonder, “Why does God respond to destruction and violence with more destruction and violence?” I can hear my own children wondering, “Why do Mom and Dad try to get us to stop screaming by screaming back at us?” Peace on earth starts at home. The rainbow image is a good reminder for me. Shabbat shalom!
Does it not say in the Bible, in Genesis: “G-d made man in His image?” Never does it say G-d is a peace, or perfect, god at that either…
G-d destroys the people of the flood’s generation because they deserved it. You had a system where the strong oppressed the weak. The Torah presumes a capital punishment for certain heinous crimes. In fact people are required to make and enforce laws which prevent these sort of abuses. G-d gave them a warning through Noah’s long process of preparation. Violence isn’t bad unjustified violence is bad. The people of the flood deserved death for their crimes.
Mike:
You make it all sound pretty black and white, and I think Torah is anything but. Recall in the story of Noah itself the rainbow and G-d’s covenant never to destroy all flesh again by way of a flood again (Genesis 9:14-18). That doesn’t exactly sound like a ringing endorsement for bringing on the flood in the first place or being supportive of capital punishment. Also, I believe commentators have also weighed in over the years as well. Maybe some read Torah to support capital punishment and others not — but the point is — its not black and white.
Brad
Leaving aside the charged issue of capital punishment, Mike’s comment assumes “a system where the strong oppressed the weak” and that God “warned” humanity through Noah’s preparations. In fact neither of these things are definitively indicated by the actual Torah text. Nowhere do we read that humanity’s violence was systematic – and there is no evidence at all that God intended to warn humanity of the coming disaster (as was the case, for example, with the Ninevites in the book of Jonah).
It is also critical to note that the Flood is portrayed by Torah as more than simply a “death sentence” for Noah’s generation – it was nothing short of a wholesale reversing of the process of Creation. The earth was overrun with the primordial waters, wiping out every living thing that breathed – including animal life. It is fair to interpret God’s promise at the end of the story – to never again destroy the earth in such a way – was in some measure an admission for the need for “divine restraint” in the future.
Thanks for weighing in, everyone!
Rabbi Brant Rosen
When I read this story, straight from Torah, to my children some years ago, my six year old cut straight to the heart of it. “You know, Dad,” he said, “God is all about over-reacting.”
Teaching moment.
Says I, “Son, you’re right. But remember: God is a god, not a person. People are people, not gods. It takes a long time for them to understand each other in this book. God confronts Adam and Eve, and they don’t ‘fess up; they pass the blame, so he throws them out of the garden. God says he’ll destroy the earth, and Noah never argues; he just builds the ark. It’s not until Abraham that someone figures out how to argue with God, and even then, he fails. Only Moses gets it right, and makes God back down from destroying the whole people: ‘Do you know what the Egyptians will say,” he asks God, ‘if you do?’
From which we learn, as Jews: when you screw up, you’re supposed to admit it, and when the Powers that Be start killing, you’re supposed to blunt the blow.”
Or as my son puts it now, in religious school classes, much to his classmates’ chagrin: “Just because God says it or does it, doesn’t mean it’s right.”
(I love the elegance, by the way, of killing both the strong and the weak to end a system where the weak are oppressed by the strong. It’s utterly inhuman, but hey, if you’re an immortal being, what’s such a big deal about wiping the slate clean to start over? Maybe human death means as little to you as some two-year-old crisis, like misplacing a favorite washcloth, means to a grown up.)
Glad to have you on the case, Rav.
Eric–you have a favorite washcloth??
Yup! Lost it two years ago, and haven’t been the same man since. (Sniff!)
There are a number of instances in the Torah where I have found the actions of God to be very distrubing. For example in the Passover story God kills the first born of Egypt. Now why should the children of Egypt be killed for the sins of the Phoarah?
Another exmaple is the battle of Jericho. In this the Israelites killed every man, woman, and child in the city as well as the oxen, sheep, and asses. Apparently this was OK by God.
In fact, in Deuteronomy God instructs the Israelis on how do deal with enemy cities in the territories which God gave the Jews. The instruction is “not to leave single soul alive”.
There are many other instances like this. I would like to ask Rabbi Rosen (or others) how they deal with these problems.
- Dan Solomon
Great question, Dan.
How do I deal with this problem? I remind myself that the God of the Bible is the product of Biblical authors who lived thousands of years ago in the Ancient Near East, who had their own unique way of understanding who God was and how God behaved. But I also remind myself that the Jewish understanding of God does not begin and end with the God of the Bible.
Throughout the evolution of Jewish civilization, there has always been a spectrum of Jewish theologies. (There is, for instance, the God of the Talmud/Midrash, the God of the early Jewish mystics, the God of Medieval Jewish philosophy, the God of Lurianic Kabbalah, the God of modern Jewish rationalism, the God of post-Holocaust philosophy, etc, etc.)
Some of these theologies we will agree with, some we won’t. Some we will find inspiring, some we will find repugnant. That’s OK. I would suggest that the sancity of our sacred texts does not come from the literal meaning of their words, but rather the fact that they are a record of our own people’s sacred struggles – a process that has been ongoing from Jewish generation to generation.
I’d love to hear from others as well!
Rabbi Brant Rosen